Today, powered by recent advances in digital media technology, there is a rapid increase in a variety of different ways of interacting with digital media content, such as images (e.g., photos), text, audio items (e.g., audio files, including music or songs), or videos (e.g., movies). In the past, consumers were constrained to interacting with digital media content on their desktop or in their living room of their home. Today, portability lets people enjoy digital media content at any time and in any place, using a variety of different media devices.
While portability of media content and availability of a variety of different media devices with different sizes, weights and capabilities offers many options to users, some challenges still remain. One difficulty is that interaction with media content across different devices may be tedious, difficult or confusing to some users. Further, while in any given set of circumstances, one device may be preferred over another, changing from one device to another tends to be difficult, confusing or inconvenient.
For example, while a full size device may provide a rich experience of a football game video at home, circumstances change when a viewer is interrupted by needing to leave home, for example, to catch a ride to the airport. Under such changed circumstances, a portable device would be needed to view the video. The user would need to provide the football game video to the portable device and thereafter start playback of the video while riding to the airport. Hence, a significant amount of care and effort is required for a user to change between devices.
Thus, there is a need for improved techniques for interacting with media content across different devices in a client-server environment.